Home › Men's Basketball
Tigers win No. 400 for Calipari
Undefeated, No. 1 Tigers await Vols
Memphis Tigers
STORY TOOLS
RELATED STORIES
More Men's Basketball
- Craft ready to go 'all-out' for Pearl, Tennessee
- Next Bradshaw? UT gets commitment from combo guard Craft
- It has been a basketball journey for Turner
Share and Enjoy [?]
Get Reprints
NEW ORLEANS - It didn't take last-minute heroics Wednesday night, just full-time concentration.
Chris Douglas-Roberts scored 29 points to lead No. 1 Memphis to a 97-71 victory over Tulane on Wednesday night, giving coach John Calipari his 400th victory and a chance for a major sigh of relief.
"I was scared to death," Calipari said. "I had a pit in my stomach all day and I'm not worried about Saturday's game.
Memphis' win, coupled with second-ranked Tennessee's 89-70 victory against Auburn, sets up a showdown Saturday between the top two ranked teams in the country. It will be the first 1-2 meeting since No. 2 Ohio State beat No. 1 Wisconsin 49-48 on Feb. 25, 2007.
"That game has been played up to a level I can't even tell you," Calipari said.
That game, and the hype surrounding it is what sparked Calipari's concern. He was worried his players would be thinking Tennessee not Tulane. He didn't need to worry.
After remaining undefeated with a one-point victory over UAB, Memphis (26-0, 12-0 Conference USA), had no trouble against Tulane (15-10, 5-6).
Memphis was ahead 46-27 at halftime, and never allowed the Green Wave to get closer than 17 after that.
"We just got beaten by the best team in the country," Tulane coach Dave Dickerson said. "We have a long way to go to catch up to them."
The Tigers, who haven't lost a league game since March 2, 2006, ran up their impressive streaks -45 consecutive regular-season wins, 35 consecutive C-USA victories and 17 road wins in a row.
"We're not thinking of the streaks at all," Douglas-Roberts said. "Our motto is it's a one-game season."
But after beating Tulane, Douglas-Roberts was ready to look ahead to the Vols.
"We've got a good one ahead of us," he said. "We're evenly matched, it's going to be a good one."
Derrick Rose scored 17 for Memphis and had five assists, Robert Dozier and Doneal Mach each had 14 points.
David Gomez led the Green Wave with 23 points.
/
© 2008, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
- UT report card for UCLA
- Game film makes Fulmer madder
- Crompton suffered concussion in fourth quarter against UCLA
- It's a Hollywood disaster, but Fulmer says it's 'fixable'
- Craft ready to go 'all-out' for Pearl, Tennessee
- UT to play UConn in football (not women's basketball)
- Call into the Vol frustration line
- Next Bradshaw? UT gets commitment from combo guard Craft
- Strange: UT 0-3 in SEC by mid-October?
- Adams: Tony P's is SEC of West
Please download the latest version of Adobe Flash Player, or enable JavaScript for your browser to view the video player.
Posted by pdhuff on February 21, 2008 at 7:15 a.m. (Suggest removal)
One can only hope that 401 comes next week, not Saturday. Congrats John on 400.
Posted by devault1 on February 21, 2008 at 11:20 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Congrats Coach Cal.
Posted by HotlantaVol on February 21, 2008 at 11:25 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Calapari is good. That's for sure. I especially like it breaded and deep fried and dipped in marinara sauce. Just the rings, though. I don't like the tentacles as much.
Posted by auttat on February 21, 2008 at 2:33 p.m. (Suggest removal)
hotlantavol is becoming the regular comedian. I enjoyed the house divided comment as well.
(Requires free registration.)
Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.